Los Angeles County
Biographies
CARLTON H. HAND
HAND, CARLTON H., Mining Engineer, Los Angeles, California, was born in Portage City, Wisconsin, July 4, 1859, the son of George H. Hand and Helen Mar (Ketchum) Hand. He married Amelia S. Ream at Yankton, South Dakota, June 5, 1893, and to them there have been born two children, Arthur S. and Helen M. Hand. He is descended of good old American ancestry, the paternal and maternal branches of the family having been represented in the United States since 1648, when they came over from England.
His family having moved to the Northwest when he was a child, Mr. Hand received his preliminary education in the public schools of Yankton, South Dakota, and was graduated from the high school there. He then decided upon mining as a profession and entered the Colorado State School of Mines, at Golden, Colorado, where he remained for three years, or until he was compelled, in 1882, to give up his studies on account of ill health. He went to Silver City, New Mexico, then the center of mining activity, to recuperate, but immediately became active in mining affairs.
For about a year after he located in Silver city, Mr. Hand worked as Assayer and Chemist for various mining companies, but at the end of that period became an independent mine examiner, and reported on a number of properties, some of which have since become famous as the producers of large returns for their owners.
Upon leaving New Mexico, in 1885, Mr. Hand went to Philipsburg, Montana, where he entered the employ of the Granite Mountain Mining Company, composed of St. Louis capitalists, and at that time regarded as one of the powerful mining syndicates of the United States. He was appointed Assayer and Chemist and remained with the Company in that capacity some eighteen months, resigning to enter business for himself in Butte.
Here Mr. Hand became associated with H. C. Carney in the purchase of an assaying business at Butte, Montana, and, under the firm name of Carney & Hand, they began the operation of a general assay and mine engineering practice, Mr. Hand had charge of the engineering branch of the work, while his partner conducted the assay department. This partnership continued for about twelve years and during two years of that time, Mr. Hand’s time was almost entirely taken up with expert work in the interest of a syndicate of capitalists, principally stockholders of the Granite Mountain Mining Company, with which he had formerly been associated. He examined numerous properties for this syndicate throughout the western states. The failure of the syndicate to accept his advice as to the purchase of certain properties, caused his resignation. Later his judgment was vindicated, one of the properties having paid over sixty millions in dividends and the other, while much less, still paid several millions.
His practice also included at various times extensive examinations for other mining corporations. During his residence in Butte he was frequently employed professionally in the extensive mining litigation that took place between the great copper companies of that district.
The firm of Carney & Hand was dissolved in 1898, and Mr. Hand then became Manager for owners of the celebrated Payne silver mine, in the Slocan District of British Columbia. This property is noted as one of the great fortune yielders of a territory rich in lead, silver and zinc, and for about two years and a half Mr. Hand was in full charge of all its operations. Resigning his position in 1901, he returned to the United States and took up the duties of manager for the Watseca Mining Company, operating at Rochester, Montana, remaining there for about four years. As part of his work for this company, Mr. Hand made a trip to the Island of Celebes, in the Dutch East Indies, and spent several months examining copper properties.
Following his return to the United States, Mr. Hand spent several years in the examination of mining properties for different companies and in this work traveled all over the western part of the United States, and going into Old Mexico and British Columbia. He was attracted to Southern California about 1908, and opened offices at Los Angeles for the practice of his profession, being steadily engaged there since that time. For a short time after his arrival he was active in oil development in the Kern River section of California and still is interested in several oil enterprises, but the greater part of his time if taken up with his mining work.
In addition to serving in an engineering capacity for a large number of concerns, Mr. Hand is Consulting Engineer for the International Mines Development Company, which operates properties in Arizona, British Columbia and other sections.
Mr. Hand ranks high among mining experts. He is a member of the American Institute of Mining Engineers, the American Mining Congress and the Sierra Madre Club, of Los Angeles.
Transcribed 6-12-09
Marilyn R. Pankey.
Source: Press
Reference Library, Western Edition Notables of the West, Vol. I, Page 297,
International News Service, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles,
Boston, Atlanta. 1913.
© 2009 Marilyn R. Pankey.
GOLDEN NUGGET'S LOS ANGELES BIOGRAPIES